Mothers keep needlessly dying

Mothers are needlessly dying before, during and after childbirth. For every five mothers dying in the United States from pregnancy and childbirth, three could have been saved with better medical care, new CDC research published Tuesday shows. The agency's latest analysis of national maternal mortality data adds to the growing body of evidence that more than half of deaths are preventable. And it further illustrates how delayed and missed diagnoses by medical providers, failures to recognize warning signs, and a lack of patient access to health care are all fueling this country's status as the most dangerous place to give birth among developed nations.

Renata McClendon talks about the death of her sister Felicia West at her home in New Orleans.(Photo: Jarrad Henderson, USA TODAY)

Lady Gaga stripped down on the Met's red carpet

There are grand entrances, and then there is Lady Gaga's outrageous multiple-outfit arrival (strip tease?) at the 2019 Met Gala on Monday. As one of the co-chairs of the annual fashion event, which this year celebrates the Metropolitan Museum of Art 's new exhibition "Camp: Notes on Fashion," Gaga not only brought drama but brought it in several forms. Four outfits total, to be exact.

So who were the other kings and queens of the single biggest night of the year for fashion?

A heartbeat? No abortion, Georgia says

One of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in the country was signed Tuesday in Georgia. The "fetal heartbeat" bill, approved by Republican Governor Brian Kemp, makes it illegal to receive an abortion once a heartbeat is detectable in the womb at around six weeks. Many women don't know they're pregnant at six weeks, critics of the bill argued, claiming it's not enough time for women to get an appointment with doctors, gather money for an abortion and receive proper care. Current state law allows abortions up to the 20th week of pregnancy. The new law, which has ​roiled Democratic lawmakers and abortion rights advocates, would take effect Jan. 1, 2020. It's likely to be challenged in court.

The 800th child to die in a hot car

An awful milestone has been reached: Eight hundred children have now died in hot cars since records began in 1998. The 800th was a 4-year-old Minnesota boy who died Saturday in a hot SUV after waiting for hours. Thirty-eight children die in hot vehicles every year on average, according to Golden Gate Weather Services, a private meteorology firm in California. How? Cars turn into ovens in direct sunlight. Temperatures can soar to130 degrees with weather in the 80s. Children are especially vulnerable: Their respiratory system can't handle heat like that of adults.

Eating rodents? Beware bubonic plague

After eating raw rodent’s kidney for 'good health,' a Mongolian couple has died from the bubonic plague, sparking a quarantine that trapped tourists for days. A six-day quarantine of 118 people in contact with the couple, including locals and foreign tourists, had been lifted Tuesday, according to an official, who said that eating the rodent's raw meat and kidney is believed to be good for health in the area. While modern antibiotics can now treat the disease and prevent its spread, infections in humans still occur in parts of the western United States as well as in Africa and Asia, the CDC says.

This file photo shows a yellow-bellied marmot in the United States. A couple in Mongolia died from the bubonic plague after eating raw marmot meat.(Photo: Ben Hulsey)